Why might my 5.1 speakers act like they are 2.1?

Question

Yep, the center and back speakers are not working. They did though, until last month. I tried re-installing the driver but that changed nothing. This is their 3rd year with me,so maybe they've grown old.. Both the speakers and the sound-card is by "Creative".

Please help me, i really love my home theater.

The card is "SB Live! Series" and this started when i moved the computer from one room to another.

Correction#2: They are digital,they come with a volume controller and made for PC-use only, No red-whites, just plain black.

Correction #3: Everything is set to work properly -it actually did work properly until last month- but it's not working properly now.

Answer 1

I had a creative Sound Blaster Live that lost it's rear channel capabilities after a couple of years. Otherwise, the speakers might have dumped. What kind of card do you have specifically.

I suspect the sound card, as this is the same problem I had with mine. To test, you should be able to test them in a different application like off of a stereo or TV or something, give this a shot to get it for sure.

Answer 2

I assume you are using a computer with your 5.1 speaker system?
If you have it hooked up with the analog audio cables (red/white ended) you will only pass two channel (stereo) audio. What you need is a digital coax (either green or purple-ended, sometimes black) or a fiber optic cable, depending on what your gear uses. And if you use fiber optic, remember to remove the tiny clear plastic caps from the optics before you plug it in. You also need to into your menu setup and tell it you want dolby digital 5.1 surround sound.

Answer 3

this might be a dumb answer, and forgive me if it is, but did you somehow switch the surrond mode to sterio? make sure its on dolby.